The Spring of the West’s Disorder
MAY 22, 2024BY SRDJA TRIFKOVIC
President of Russia Vladimir Putin with President of China Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during Putin' state visit to China. Via Wikimedia Commons
Anyone looking for meaningful events on the world stage during the first three weeks of May has found an embarrassment of riches. This brief chronology will start with three events likely to have some lasting impact—which in our time means that they will be remembered at least for the next three to six months. These events illustrate the cardinal fact of today’s international relations: The self-destructive neuroses of the U.S.-led “collective West” engender disorder and prompt its rivals to forge ever-closer links.
Shortly before welcoming President Vladimir Putin in China (May 16–17), Xi Jinping reiterated—not for the first time—that the most defining characteristic of today’s world is “chaos.” Last Thursday, addressing the cameras with Putin at his side, he indicated their intention jointly to counter it. “Right now there are changes—the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years,” he said, “and we are the ones driving these changes together.” At a joint press conference at the end of the visit they said that they were building “a new security architecture that is balanced, effective and sustainable.”
The Chinese foreign ministry noted in a statement dated May 16 that Xi and Putin had met more than 40 times over the years “and stayed in close communication, providing strategic guidance that … is not only in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, but also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world at large.” Putin’s delegation included almost all senior cabinet members, top military brass, and industry leaders in energy, space, and agriculture. Xi, who went to Moscow for his first foreign visit following his own reelection last year, extended a lavish welcome to Putin outside the Great Hall of the People with an honor guard, a 21-gun salute, and a line of cheering children.
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/the-spring-of-the-wests-disorder/
